Project Summary - Software Engineering (SE) Core The NEI sponsored research of investigators at the Stein Eye Institute (SEI) and UCLA campus are endowed with superb, innovative and highly technical instrumentation. The investigators use advanced spectroscopic, electrophysiological, optical and mechanical systems many of which are home-built, custom modified and many are commercial. The rapid progress made in technology has created a need for a specialized core facility to write software to run the instrumentation, expand data analysis, and permit local upgrades of the instruments to meet specific needs. The institute is fortunate to have a developer for custom software solutions in the LabVIEW program. LabVIEW is widely used in virtually everyone of the laboratories described above. The programming environment is icon driven as opposed to requiring sophisticated programming backgrounds. Therefore, it is easily taught to lab personnel, student and other PI's to meet the unique demands of the research environment. In short the software engineering core component will provide expert assistance in developing new software for data analysis and/or instrument control. The LabVIEW programming environment will be emphasized. Establishment of this core required several strategies that will be elaborated fully in our research strategy. A. Personnel ? Addition of a software engineer expert in programming of LabVIEW. B. Acquisition of state of the art software tools C. Improved Access and Availability of software engineering to NEI grant holders D. Training in basic LabVIEW programming for trainees and labs of NEI investigators. E. Project schedules and prioritization to determine proficient was to fill software needs F. Synergistic use of the Core Modules G. Foster Collaborative Relationships, particularly Clinical and Basic Research